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Browsing by tag: osmotheque

Hard to come by

Posted by Robin on 13 April 2020 Leave a Comment

Some of the 27 ingredients Pliny described were hard to come by nearly 2,000 years later, and getting the proportions right was a challenge too – since in Pliny’s time raw materials weren’t distilled or synthesised, but crushed and burned. It took all [perfumer Jean] Kerléo’s skill, and a year of his life, to achieve a harmonious balance. But achieve it he did, and the hedonistic parlours of ancient Rome sprang to life in a haze of cinnamon, honey and wine.

— Read more in Is There Such A Formula As The Perfume Of God? And Other Fragrance Dreams From A Perfume Conservatory In Versailles (that would be the Osmothèque perfume museum) at Vogue UK.

Rare Perfumes ~ perfume book review

Posted by Robin on 20 February 2014 8 Comments

Rare Perfumes, book cover

Rare Perfumes (the French version is called Parfums Rares) is a celebration of niche perfumery, in a coffee table format with large illustrations and plenty of white space (see images below). It was commissioned by the Osmothèque, the museum and scent archive in Versailles, and sponsored by The Fragrance Foundation France, InterParfums, Robert Piguet and Parfums de Nicolaï, among others. It was written by two fragrance journalists, Sabine Chabbert and Laurence Férat, and features a preface by Patricia de Nicolaï.

If you’re looking for a critical, in-depth analysis of how niche perfumes fit into — or don’t fit into — the larger fragrance market, or how niche influences mainstream or vice versa, look elsewhere (and tell me where you find it). This is not that, nor is it a niche version of something like Michael Edwards’ Perfume Legends: French feminine fragrances, with its focus on perfume development and the interplay between brands, perfumers, marketers and designers. Other than in passing, you will learn relatively little about individual fragrances or how they differ from from their mainstream counterparts…

Read the rest of this article »

Admirable perfumes

Posted by Robin on 3 December 2013 2 Comments

In my early days these were Bayley’s Ess. Bouquet, Lubin’s Chypre, Piver’s Le Trèfle Incarnat, Roger & Gallet’s Vera Violetta. The greatest perfumer of his time, Mr Parquet, created Le Parfum Idéal, Fougère Royale and Cœur de Jeannette, all admirable perfumes, and later Mr Bienaimé composed Quelques Fleurs with its new note of lilac that proved a considerable success for the house of Houbigant.

— Perfumer Ernest Beaux on a few of the perfumes that left an impression on him. From Perfumers on Perfume : Ernest Beaux on Fragrance Masterpieces at Bois de Jasmin; it is the first in a projected series of translated articles from the archives at the Osmothèque perfume museum in Versailles.

Luca Turin, Tania Sanchez & Patricia de Nicolai at the Smithsonian

Posted by Robin on 30 November 2009 34 Comments

Perfumistas will want to take note of two special events hosted by the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program in Washington, DC this coming February:

The Art of Fragrance (In Collaboration with the Embassy of France With Sparkling Wine Toast) with Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez, Friday, 5 February at 6:45 pm:

Tonight, we cut through the usual perfume-babble to illuminate the art of fragrance…

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Millot Crepe de Chine ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 31 August 2009 116 Comments

Millot Crepe de Chine advertMillot Crepe de Chine advert

Friday afternoon I scoped the downtown department stores for something new and interesting to smell. At one department store, the sales associate showed me lots of recent but ultimately uninspiring perfumes — all Angel rip-offs or fruit-ridden musks. We ended the tour at the Trish McEvoy counter where she raved about one of them that ended up smelling like a baby-shampoo-scented candle on me. At Macy’s, the sales associate said there weren’t any new releases for women, only for men. “Maybe Shalimar L’Oiseau de Paradis?” I tried, thinking I could at least look at a pretty bottle. “We didn’t get that one,” she said and turned her back, leaving me neglected in a forest of celebrity fragrances. Discouraged, I returned home to a surefire remedy for mediocrity and bad manners: Millot Crêpe de Chine.

Crêpe de Chine is a floral aldehydic chypre with top notes of bergamot, lemon, neroli, and orange; a heart of jasmine, rose, lilac, ylang ylang, and carnation; and a base of oak moss, vetiver, benzoin, labdanum, patchouli, musk, and leather…

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From NST at Twitter

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